Ahoy, me hearties!
Year 2 had a great day on Friday 09 May becoming pirates and travelling to a forgotten island!
We made pirate hats at the beginning of the day before setting sail on the seven seas in our boat.
After sailing around the seven seas and performing our pirate duties, we came across a message in a bottle that told of a boy name William trapped on a deserted island. Of course, we went in search of him, using our telescopes, making a raft and rowing to shore.
We found all sorts on the island – Soft leaves, straight twigs, tall trees and fluffy plants! And, of course, we found William. We joined him on the island and drew a map of where we were…
…before writing a sense poem about what we could see in the North, East, South and West of the island.
In the North I see
A leaf as green as a croaking frog.
In the East I see
A gate as black as a dark cave.
In the South I see
A building as hard as rock.
In the West I see
Miss Rushbrooke, as cheeky as a monkey!
Roundhay Football Tournament
The Roundhay 7 a side tournament is well under way. The Year 5 team have a win and a draw from their first two games!
Upcoming sporting events
Sports & Active Lifestyles Fair
Find out what sports clubs and physical activity opportunities are available in our area for all children, young people and adults. This is a great opportunity to come as a family or with friends and take part in sport / activity taster sessions and watch sports demonstrations from local clubs.
- When: Thursday 5th June 2014
- Time: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
- Where: Roundhay School
Roundhay Park Family Fun Run (1K & 5K)
- When: Saturday 7th June 2014
- Time: 10:00am
- Where: Roundhay Park
REAP and Roundhay Live are starting the celebrations of Le Grand Depart early with this community event, full of family fun, music, food and cycling.
- When: Sunday 22nd June 2014
- Time: 12:00pm-5:00pm
- Where: Roundhay School
For further information about any of these events please ask at the school office.
Owls in Moortown Primary
As part of our nocturnal animals mini topic, we had some nocturnal visitors in the first week back after Easter. Five different owls came to see us and we even got to hold them! Two barn owls, two eagle owls and a snowy owl took to the stage and we learnt all about them. Here are some things we found out.
- Owls have two ears; one on top of their head and one on the bottom. This is so they can hear prey and know if something is above trying to catch them.
- Owls create a nest in stones on the ground so that their eggs won’t roll away.
- There are five types of owl in Britain; these are the barn owl, long-eared owl, short-eared owl, tawny owl and the little owl.
- Amazingly, owls can turn their heads 270 degrees! This helps because they can’t move their eyes side to side like we can.
Our new SEAL theme for this half-term is…
…’Relationships’.
We begin the half term with a focus on manners: I cover my mouth (when I cough, sneeze or yawn) is our statement for this week. Children, and adults, will be taught the ‘vampire method’ for coughs and sneezes in order to prevent the spread of germs – ‘use your sleeve to cough and sneeze’.
Following this, the Relationships theme explores feelings within the context of our important relationships including family and friends.
It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in three key social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings and empathy.
There is a focus throughout the theme on helping children understand the feelings associated with an experience that we all need to cope with at some time: that of loss – whether of a favourite possession, a friend, a family home, or a loved one. Although relatively few children are bereaved, most will experience losses of other kinds during their childhood; losing a home, losing friends because of moving house or changing schools, or losing a pet are examples.
We would therefore ask for parents / carers to alert us to any experiences your child has had that might make this area particularly difficult for them – for example, a bereavement.
Sorting Smarties
As it was the last day before Easter, and we had been looking at presenting and interpreting data, we had some fun with chocolate in maths! We had a look at a bar chart showing us what colour Smarties were in one tube. Each pair of children had a tube of Smarties and we needed to know which tube the chart was showing us.
We decided to pour our Smarties out and sort them into the different colours.
We then thought of a way to better organise our Smarties so that we could compare the packet to the chart more quickly. We created a pictogram of Smarties on our whiteboards.
Finally, we created our own bar chart of the information to find out whose packet matched the chart we first looked at. Shockingly, it didn’t match anybody’s and Miss Rushbrooke had to own up to eating that pack of Smarties already! So… we all ate ours too. Yum!
It’s the Easter holidays…
…so we have no set homework or spellings, in line with our Homework Policy.
That doesn’t mean we expect your child not to be developing their skills in reading, writing and maths!
Your child should be reading daily – this could be fiction, factual books, a comic or newspaper, and could include being read to at bedtime, too.
It would be good to practise basic skills in writing by writing a letter or email to a relative, perhaps recounting a day-trip or reviewing a film your child watched.
We’re finding quite a few children are ‘squashing their sentences’ such as I went to Leeds City Museum it was really interesting which is wrong. It would be much better with punctuation to separate or a word to join:
- I went to Leeds City Museum. It was really interesting. (A comma isn’t strong enough to separate two sentences.)
- I went to Leeds City Museum – it was really interesting.
- I went to Leeds City Museum; it was really interesting.
- I went to Leeds City Museum and it was really interesting.
- I went to Leeds City Museum which was really interesting.
Finally, to improve calculation skills, please keep practising mental number facts which your child must know:
- number bonds (two numbers which add up to 10, 20 and 100 eg 3+7, 13+7, 30+70) – these facts should be known by children in Y1 – Y2
- times tables (up to 12×12) and the division facts with your child – children in Y2 should have rapid recall of x2, x 5 and x 10 at least
We know we mention these ‘basics’ a lot, but that’s because they involve practice, practice and more practice – we practise a lot at school, but your child will need to practise at home, too, if they are to truly succeed.
Learn more about current expectations for reading, writing and maths. However, do be aware that a new National Curriculum comes into effect from September, meaning these expectations have been raised and so many aspects of learning now feature in younger age groups.
Have you always wanted to be a superhero?
Have you always wanted to be a superhero?
Do you know what your super power would be?
Go to Moor Allerton Library on Tuesday 27 May from 2.30 – 3.30 pm and meet an author, Jason Beresford. Discover the adventures of the Fabulous Fish Finger gang.
This is a free event, no booking required.
Solving problems in maths
When I returned from Finland, it was clear that Mr Wilks had taught us well in multiplication. I set the children a challenge using grid method. I gave them all of the numbers but not yet placed in their section of the grid. In groups, they had to figure out what went where and then tell me what my calculation was.
Everybody rose to the challenge, working very effectively in teams. Well done!
Sporting heroes
So far in our heroes topic, we have explored superheroes, heroes from the past and community heroes. This week, our focus has been on heroes in sport. We were lucky enough to be visited by Keith Senior, a retired Leeds Rhinos player. Lots of us had some very interesting questions.
How long have you been playing rugby? 20 years.
Why did you retire? I got a knee injury.
Have you ever got cuts and bruises? Yes lots!
